


Friend of a Friend.

by ZombieCyborgAssassin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, One last try at this fandom, Pre-Relationship, Unbeta'd, We die like (wo)men, idk - Freeform, it wanted to be written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 08:28:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22033015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZombieCyborgAssassin/pseuds/ZombieCyborgAssassin
Summary: Harry's new friend is not allthatbad. Probably.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 14
Kudos: 83





	Friend of a Friend.

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing.
> 
> If you like this, check out my other fics, and my website for original content.
> 
> [www.KatherineHenshaw.com](https://www.katherinehenshaw.com)
> 
> Just a little quickie because I've been struggling to find a minute to write and i want to give this fandom one last try.  
> Unbeta'd, we die like (wo)men!

She opened the door and stared at the two men on the other side of the door for a moment, then rolling her eyes. “No.” and she closed the door none-too-gently.

The knocking started up again, and she walked away from the door to the kitchen where she waved her wand in a series of complicated twists and swirls, putting the breakables off the bench spaces and unloading her Wishwasher ™. 

Hermione had made a mint off the wizarding community making magical versions of muggle appliances, tools, entertainment and other such gadgets. The fact that no one had done it before was… embarrassing on the wizarding communities behalf and frankly they were sitting ducks for her ingenuity and ability to research. Even though she now had enough money to rival that of even Malfoy himself and could afford her own mansion in the countryside, she preferred to remain in her heavily warded and hidden three bedroom apartment in the middle of Muggle London. The only people who knew how to access the place were Harry and her now ex Ron, though their relationship ending was more about the fact that the only chemistry they had was in the middle of a life or death situation. They just didn’t realise it because their lives were always at risk as they were growing up. When it came down to having regular conversation about what to eat for dinner and talking about how their days went, the reality was that they were  _ really _ not suited for each other.

Shaking her head at the pathetic pleading on the other side of her front door, and flicking her wrist again, she packed away her nail polish, red wine and turned off the telly; there was no way she wanted either of those men to see that she’d been having a girly night. As it was, she sometimes forgot  _ herself _ that she was a woman sometimes, let alone ever indicating to  _ them _ that she was a self aware woman, not some walking encyclopedia machine. 

Having another brilliant idea, she discarded the performance of letting the two men suffer and allowed them in as she rushed past their stumbling over their own feet to her research room for a self filling quill and paper to write it down. 

_ Encyclopedia scroll! Research marauders map and Riddle’s diary for ideas.  _

“Whatcha workin’ on, ‘Mione?” slurred the dark haired menace that had followed her into her work room. 

“None of your business, Harry,” she gazed over his shoulder at the blonde man who was free of his blind fold, but was struggling with the knot. “And what are you doing bringing  _ him _ here?  _ Again? _ ” she gave him a no nonsense look, but she knew it was wasted on the drunk savoir, since he was having trouble focusing on her face. 

“‘S important, ‘Mione,” he whispered loudly, his shoulder making contact with the door frame as he leaned in to talk privately with her. “We think you’re the only one who can help us.”

The grave expression on the man's face was slightly exaggerated, like he wasn’t sure he was getting his message across properly and she wanted to laugh at him a little, but this wasn’t the first time Harry had shown up at her place shitfaced with none other than Draco Malfoy in tow.

“Of  _ course _ she’s the only one who can help us, Potter, you utter lush,” Malfoy, who had given up on untying the blindfold and left it hanging around his neck, sauntered weavingly over to the two Gryffindors with less grace than he seemed to think he had. “She’s the smartest witch who ever lived.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, a far cry from their school days.

He tried to land his shoulder on the other side of the door frame, but missed and managed to smoosh his face into it. It was times like these that she remembered that no matter their past or differences, Draco Malfoy was merely human; not because he had a heart or anything, but because he was flawed too. It was a nice feeling to not only witness it, but also be one of the few to be allowed - if only by proxy by being a friend of a friend.

“Harry Elizabeth Potter-”

“Hey you  _ know _ my middle name’s James!”

“I like that, I think I’m gonna call you Lizzy from now on, Potter.”

“- I  _ told you _ when you decided to befriend the Ferret that I wanted no part in it.”

“Excuse me, I’ll have you know that that transfiguration was an  _ incredibly _ traumatic experience.”

“Uh-huh, and so was your bullying.”

“... Carry on.”

“But  _ ‘Mione _ , can’t we all just get along and be happy?”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at that.

“ _ Okay, _ can’t you tolerate his Ferret-y presence?”

“ _ In _ my  _ home _ , Harry Elizabeth,” She put her hands on her hips.

Malfoy put his hands on his hips, “Yeah, Lizzy,  _ in _ her  _ home. _ ” He began sliding down the wall and Hermione rolled her eyes at the pureblood twat before grabbing his arm and frog marching him to the living room and dumped him on the couch. 

She returned to get Harry, but he’d somehow managed to make his way to the living room on his own without shattering anything. Sighing, she guided him to sit by his new-ish companion and left to get a glass of water for each along with a couple of sober-up potions. 

Once she was back in the living room opposite the two drunk men, she placed one of each in front of each of them and sat back with an expectant expression on her face.

Malfoy was staring at the sober up potion while Harry was chugging the water like a good little duckling. 

“Something wrong with my potion making skills, Malfoy?”

The blonde cleared his throat and glanced away, “No, I just think I- well, that is,  _ Lizzy and I _ , we might find we don't have the cour- uh… we might not be as el… eloquiet… eloquanit… ello-quaint… ‘ello govna,” he snickered, causing Hermione to clear her throat. “Oh, uh, yes. We- the sober up potion-ing will make it  _ harder _ to say the thing we need to say.”

Hermione was impressed that it took him this long to get to the innuendos, usually when they turned up drunk to her apartment, it was all he could say. Add to that, the fact that she saw right through his excuse to the fact that he didn’t think he had the cojones of a Gryffindor to ask her what he wanted or needed. 

She felt herself smirk, “No amount of alcohol will make Lizzy eloquent, Ferret.”

He gave her a crooked smile and pulled a flask from his vest pocket with nod of his head, “Too right, Your Majesty.”

“You two know I’m right here?” Harry hadn’t had his sober up potion yet, and from the looks of things, he wasn’t interested in having it any time soon either. He turned to the Slytherin with a quirk of his head. “Your Majesty?”

Sighing and running a hand over her face, ignoring their weird banter. Their unexpected, and if she were honest, unwelcome, friendship had started a couple of years ago when Harry had found him in St. Mungo’s after he'd been assaulted. It had added to the rift between Ron and Harry and had slowly started to encroach into her own life until she couldn’t figure out when they had gone from her being blissfully ignorant of their budding buddying to popping up on her doorstep every week to ask her some dumb question or to tell her about something that she had no interest in.  _ This _ though,  _ this _ was something else entirely.

She groaned and felt the muscles in her shoulders bunch up. “What do you two waaaaaaaant. I’m tired and was having a quiet night to myself. I would like to get back to relaxing please.”

Both men were gazing at her with shame on their faces, more so for the blonde. After a minute, Malfoy stood up unsteadily and avoided eye contact. “So sorry, Granger, so sorry. Forget I was here. I was never here.” he stumbled over to her fire place and began almost frantically searching the mantle for what she assumed was the floo powder.

Rolling her eyes, she got up and put her hands on his shoulders to move him back to the couch next to Harry who was nibbling his thumb nail while watching his newer friend. 

“C’mon Malfoy, stop being so dramatic and tell me why you two decided to show up sloshed this week.”

Harry, who had scooted over to put a reassuring arm around the mopey Malfoy, glanced up at Hermione with a scoff, “We do not show up every week drunk.”

Hermione raised her brows in amusement and nodded. 

“We absotu- abslo-... we really do, Lizzy.” Malfoy’s slurred voice was far more melancholic than she’d ever heard it, and Hermione was beginning to think there was something actually wrong with the pompous prat.

Harry turned his head to the prat, “Really?” 

His companion nodded and pointed to Hermione without looking up, “best part of my week.”

The comment hung in the air like an enchanted candle, the room eerily silent as she, and apparently the boy-who-lived-twice processed the words. 

Hermione wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or if she should pity Malfoy for having such shitty weeks, but regardless, she wanted to let the idea purculate before she reacted in anyway. 

Sitting herself down on the coffee table in front of the drunken duo, she placed a hand on Malfoy’s shoulder, “Fer-Mal... “ she cleared her throat as the blonde dared to look up at her through his lashes. “Draco, what is it that you wanted to ask me?”

He stared at her blankly for a moment before Harry nudged him and handed him a book, making the cogs in the Malfoy Scions brain work again. “Uh, you see, I found this spell in this book in the Malfoy Library, and I remembered seeing something that looked compatible in the Black Library at Lizzy’s house… and anyway… I thought, you see… I wanted to-”

Harry huffed and turned to Hermione, “He found a couple spells he thinks that if he can moosh them together, he can remove cursed marks from skin, but he wanted you to know so that A) you could work together since you’re both genius’s and would work well together, but also B) because you would benefit from it too.” Hermione took in the way Harry beamed at them like a happy puppy who had brought back the stick while her stomach twisted into knots. Not only was this monumental, but also actually kind of sweet and annoying at the same time. She glanced at Mal-Draco, who was still looking at her through his lashes and seemed ready to run, and she wasn’t sure how she felt except that she should let this percolate too. 

“O-Kay…” she glanced at the two of them, “You two need to take your sober up potions and have to sleep this off so we can talk about this properly in the morning.” She stood up, nudging the two ignored potions toward the drunk men and began walking toward the hall. “I’ll go get the spare room sorted, I still have the bunk set up from last week, and  _ no Lizzy _ it absolutely  _ is _ Malfoy’s turn on the top bunk this week,” she hollered over her shoulder ignoring the childish bickering between the two.

As she made sure there were clean sheets and clothes and toiletries, Hermione remembered a little comment that Harry had said absently a couple months back about how Malfoy had always wished he’d been able to be friends with them when they were younger because he was so alone. Hearing them squabble like siblings made her smile a little, despite the fact that the boy had made their school days awful. No, not awful. That was Voldemort. Unpleasant perhaps.

Leaving the two now rather sluggish men in the guestroom to get ready for bed, she went to top up their waters. When she came back Harry was in the bathroom, while Malfoy (Who she will never point out to him was in a spare Gryffindor seeker jersey that was inside out) lay on the top bunk and accepted his water graciously from her. She waited until he was finished to take back the cup so he didn’t have to struggle to place it on the bedside table. 

He gave her a shy smile and before releasing the cup into her hands, said, “I want to undo everything I did wrong. Wanted a clean slate. This was all I could find.” 

They gazed at each other unblinking before the sound of Harry opening the adjoining bathroom door was opened, breaking the moment.

Turning and placing the cup down next to the other, Hermione cleared her throat, “tomorrow is Saturday, we’ll sit down and look through the spells you found and we will talk about what can be done while Lizzy makes us pancakes.”

“What? Why do  _ I _ have to make pancakes?” 

Hermione raised a brow at her childhood friend, “would  _ you _ eat anything I cook?” she shuddered dramatically for effect.

“Lizzy, you know I have had Elves all my life, why would I know how to cook?”

Hemrione turned to look at Malfoy a moment, he was cringing, like he thought she was going to yell at him, which was amusing but false. “But you were always so good at potions!”

He raised a dark blonde brow at her, “You want Draught of Living Dead Omelette, Granger?”

Feeling sassy, Hermione winked at him, “Nope, I’d rather Felix Felicis Full English Breakfast.”

Harry, who hadn’t seen the wink, frowned and tilted his head like a curious dog, “why that?”

She smirked, “Because I wouldn’t mind getting lucky in the mornings, Lizzy.”

The blush on Malfoy was worth hearing Harry complain for the next several weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Debut novel **Once Upon A… What?** now available!  
>  _Self-sufficient, snarky artist Tabitha and her delightfully crass best friend Scott, are transported into a magical realm by a dusty relic. They have to seek oracles and face down a dragon while trying to evade an immortal asshole to find a way home, or else be trapped there, undying, for all eternity._  
> [www.KatherineHenshaw.com](https://www.katherinehenshaw.com)
> 
> Sequel **Once Upon A... Really?** in progress.


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